1000+ images about Florence Welsh on Pinterest | Florence the machines, Its always and Maximalism The Florence + the Machine singer has a taste for theatrical maximalism that's bewitched both music and fashion lovers alike. In a showstopping melange of bronze, brass, and brocade, the otherworldly beauty casts a spell. See More Florence and the Machine Tour Dates, Concerts & Tickets – Songkick See all past concerts (577) Biography Florence Welsh is the lead singer and personality of indie band, Florence and the Machine, formed in South London, UK in 2007. Florence and the Machine is a band comprised of Welsh, Isabella Summers and other artists that collaborate and play a dreamy blend of folk, art-pop, indie rock and neo soul. With huge encouragement from the BBC, Florence received early critical acclaim and attention from UK audiences, as BBC Introducing strongly promoted the band. “Lungs” was the title of the band’s debut album. It was released on 6 July 2009 and reached the number two slot in the UK Album Chart, retaining the position fir five consecutive weeks.

It finally reached the number one position on the album chart on 17 January 2010 after remaining in the charts for 28 consecutive weeks. In October of the same year, “Lungs” has spent an impressive grand total 65 consecutive weeks in the album chart. Notable singles from the album include, “Rabbit Heart [Raise It Up],” “Kiss With A Fist” and “Dog Days Are Over,” the songs being featured on films and television series like “Jennifer’s Body,” “90210,” “Gossip Girl,” “Glee” and “Skins.” Undoubtedly the biggest hit single released from “Lungs” was the cover of The Source and Candi Staton’s 1986 single “You’ve Got The Love.” The track was later also released in collaboration with UK grime rapper, Dizzee Rascal under the title, “You’ve Got The Dirtee Love,” following Welsh and Dizzee’s 2010 BRIT Award performance of the mash-up. Their second studio album produced by Paul Epsworth (who also worked with Bloc Part and Adele) was release in 2011.

“Ceremonials” featured singles, “Shake It Out” and “What The Water Gave Me,” the latter’s video received an outstanding 1.5 million views on YouTube in just two days after the release of the video alongside the track on iTunes in August 2011. Unsurprisingly the album reached number one on the UK Album Chart and number six on the US Billboard 200. Known for her fairly-like ethereal live performances and tendency to make every girl in the audience mount someone’s shoulders for “Rabbit Hole [Raise It Up],” Welsh along with the rest of Florence and the Machine are likened to other UK artists such as Adele, Amy Winehouse and Ellie Goulding. Live reviews Florence and the Machine Only a few hours after I wrote about Hozier performing one of the most intimate sets I had ever experienced at Red Rocks, Florence Welsh completely redefined the word ‘intimacy’. The 28-year-old vocalist of Florence + the Machine had been photographed in meltdown mode at the Montreal airport just days prior, so it came as no shock when she decided do to something a little different on the last date of her current tour.

Welsh has been pretty honest about her personal challenges with the road. She’s described feelings of loneliness and exhaustion that border on depression. I’m sure she found solace in the fact that her vocal chords held strong this time around (she damaged them not long before her Red Rocks show in 2012), but she seemed slightly unraveled by the time she took the stage for a special acoustic set on Monday night. Large scale performances and frayed nerves usually equal disaster, but as Florence’s emotions danced around her windswept red curls, she used her sweet sorrow to create an air of melancholy that infected the crowd during her stripped-down set. The audience gained another ounce of empathy with each breath…thus absorbing her sadness and eradicating any loneliness she might have been feeling. The science was exact, so by the time the 12-piece ensemble went into full effect for ‘the electric era’, we had become her friends, her confidants, and her choir. The collective energy was enough to bring the rocks crumbling down on our heads, but lucky for us (and the City of Denver) Florence held things together with the pure power of voice.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky during the entire set, but this season has seen its fair share of strong weather, and Florence + the Machine gave every drop of rain, gust of wind and bolt of lightning a run for its money. The calm before the storm just made the storm that much stronger. - See more at: #sthash.nrdxF7Aq.dpuf Florence + The Machine | Austin City Limits Florence + The Machine POSTER TAPING SETLIST With a voice that is “a galactic force capable of swallowing entire planets whole” (Entertainment Weekly), Florence Welch crafts songs that are personal, vulnerable and moving. Florence + the Machine return to the Austin City Limits stage for their second performance to share songs from How Big How Blue How Beautiful. Florence + the Machine had a gigantic 2015, seeing the release of their first U.S. #1 album How Big How Blue How Beautiful and nominations for five Grammy Awards. Released to extensive critical acclaim and named to year-end best lists from Rolling Stone, NPR Music, American Songwriter, Consequence of Sound and more.

Written and recorded over the course of 2014 and produced by Markus Dravs (Björk, Arcade Fire, Coldplay), the album follows Florence’s globally acclaimed Lungs (2009) and Ceremonials (2011). Called “Florence Welch’s most personal, vulnerable and moving album to date” by Rolling Stone, How Big How Blue How Beautiful features the massive hit “Ship to Wreck,’ which Fader calls “the best song of her career.” As anyone who saw Florence’s previous appearance on ACL knows, her taping will present, as Entertainment Weekly puts it, “an outsize physical presence who doesn’t so much sing as emit deeply emoted sounds out of some wellspring of the collective unconscious who commanded her space and demanded undivided attention.” Florence Welch: An insider's guide to the offbeat darling of British music | Daily Mail Online comments After an impromptu performance in a pub set her on the road to stardom, Florence Welch has gone on to bag a Brit Award, a Mercury Prize nomination – oh, and a mention from Prince Charles.

Benji Wilson gets the story so far from pop’s most colourful – and unconventional – new voice From pub to pop: The rise and rise of Florence Welch Many of the things you need to know about Florence Welch, the flame-haired frontwoman of this year’s hottest musical ticket Florence and the Machine, are right there in her stage performances. Take a recent London gig, for example. Fuelled by a couple of vodka tonics, she twirled and whirled in scandalous hotpants and a floor-length mesh cape, then clambered on to a speaker stack, and perched motionless on top like a pensive bird of prey while the band played on. The thought occurred: uh-oh, she’s going to try and fly. Luckily it also occurred to a security guard who hauled her back down. And then the song ended and she was a pleasant, polite 22-year-old again, thanking the crowd so much for coming. ‘Singing takes over your whole body and your brain. It’s like coming back from a weird place every time you stop,’ she tells me when we meet a week later.

It’s the ability to go to that weird place that makes Florence this year’s most off-kilter, downright exhilarating pop star. She looks sensational, her album Lungs has been nominated for this year’s Mercury Prize (to be announced on 8 September) and she has a voice loud enough to smash chandeliers from a distance. But most of all she has an eerie presence – ‘like Kate Bush on Red Bull,’ I wrote in my notes at that gig – that makes her seem just a little bit special. In July with her Mercury Prize nomination; performing at last month’s T4 on the Beach Florence says this fey otherworldliness was there from childhood. She grew up in a bohemian South London family, the eldest of three children born to an ad-man father and an American art historian mother. ‘I was imaginative, a bit of a dreamer but quite a timid child. I wasn’t confident – I think childhood is one of the most uncertain and terrifying places to be. I don’t know if I’d want to go back there. But I do remember being completely involved in imaginary games that would last for days, weeks. It was always magic, sorcery, living in trees. A lot of just living in imaginary worlds.

I don’t think I’ve lost that. It’s just now I’m doing it as a job.’ Her playmates were the people next door, who went on to become her brothers and sisters. (Her parents separated when she was 13; her mother moved in with the next-door neighbour, and Florence found herself with four new step-siblings.) ‘I had quite a chaotic upbringing, what with the amalgamation of two families into one house. That was quite a strange time, but we’ve all turned out well-rounded individuals, much to my mother’s relief. Much to her credit as well.’ ‘I was a chubby kid! Really awkward until the age of 16’ Her mother, as it happens, was at the gig where her daughter shinned up the speaker-tower. ‘She said she enjoyed the gig but it was too loud and she wishes she could hear what I was saying more. She doesn’t like the music industry.’ In short, Florence’s mum Evelyn (with whom she still lives) worries about her little girl getting her head turned by the money, the parties, the people.

‘She’d much rather I was doing something else, but she does say that when she sees me on stage that she understands why I do it. But she so wishes that I was just at university.’ Florence was never really going to end up ‘just at university’. At Alleyn’s co-educational school in Dulwich, where she sang in the choir, she says she was treated as a bit of a lost cause. ‘I daydreamed my way through it.’ What was she focused on instead? ‘Falling in love with a boy in a band. Not someone famous. Just a boy in a South London punk group. I had one best friend at school and we entered this world of art students and these amazing crazy parties and gigs. That’s what made me want to be in a band. By the end of school I felt like I wasn’t really there any more.’ The established route to the South London scene she craved was via Camberwell College of Arts, and at 18 she went there to study illustration. She dabbled in avant-garde installations (‘I remember drawing lots of cannibalistic stick men who’d eat each other in really violent ways’) then got down to the real business of banddom.

‘I went to art college because loads of amazing people I knew had gone there and it was always an ambition of mine to get an art degree. Or to be an art college dropout!’ And drop out she did. How Florence got signed is rapidly becoming part of modern music lore. Although she had been ‘messing around doing backing vocals’ while at school, and had been part of scratch bands since a phase as a 13-year-old punk, she’d never thought of herself as a frontwoman. But in December 2006, when she was 19, and a year and a half into her course at Camberwell, Mairead Nash, one half of the indie/disco DJ duo the Queens of Noize, booked a friend of Florence’s to DJ at a night in a pub. ‘I went there dressed in a full tuxedo and I was really drunk, running around going, “I can sing!”’ ‘My mum would much rather that I was doing something else. She wishes I was just at university’ Florence cornered Nash in the loo, and treated her to a half-cut rendition of Etta James’s Something’s Got a Hold On Me.

Instead of requesting police assistance, Nash asked Florence to perform at her open club night a week later. ‘We had an hour to rehearse, I had no name, I had about three songs but no backing music and totally took a chance. But while I was doing it I was like, “This feels right.” I’d always thought I needed to be in someone else’s band. I didn’t think I could stand up on my own and do it.’ She could – and Nash agreed to manage her. Although by that point she had already written some of the songs on Lungs, most of them came, as so often, from a break-up. She is now back with the boyfriend (Stuart, a literary editor) but it was traumatic at the time. ‘I was quite heartbroken and really manic. When you’re in that place it’s good to have something to do because otherwise you get really self-destructive. I think it sort of saved me from the wilderness, from the hurricane!’ Stuart provides her with new fiction to devour, and she’ll happily talk about the books, but less so the boyfriend. ‘I don’t think he really likes me talking about our break-up. It was a painful time for him, too.

He loves all the songs…but I don’t really like to talk about him.’ Either way, the songs had the right effect. Two years after singing to Nash in the loo, having only released a pair of independent singles and before any major tour, Florence was on stage at Earl’s Court in February accepting this year’s Brit Award for Critics’ Choice (Adele picked up the same award in 2008). It was still five months before Lungs would even be released. ‘I felt so out of my depth, like I didn’t belong. Take That were coming down in a spaceship, Girls Aloud were doing a burlesque show and there was me, shaking… I went backstage and just burst into tears afterwards.’ For a while she felt too exposed, with too little airplay to justify the mantle the industry had placed on her shoulders. ‘But now I can look back and really feel like that helped me. People who would have not thought to listen to my music, well, maybe it made them go and listen.’ ‘I burst into tears after the Brit Awards. I felt so out of my depth’ Since then, she has inevitably found herself lumped in with the Upcoming Female Artist brigade.

Typically, Florence is unflustered by the bracketing. ‘We just all happen to be female. I’ve met La Roux – she’s a really, really nice girl, comes from South London like me. I love her album. Victoria [Hesketh], Little Boots, is really sweet. VV Brown, lovely… Marina and the Diamonds, her stuff is great and she’s such a sweet girl. 'Everyone is really supportive of each other and we’re all going through the same thing, the highs and the lows. I don’t ever feel like there’s rivalry. There’s a real sense of, “We’re in it together.” But we’re all different artists and if you listen to our music you can tell that none of us is doing the same thing.’ Yet, as wowed crowds from T in the Park, Oxegen and Glastonbury will testify, none of the current crop of chanteuses quite match up to Florence’s on-stage clout. She simply sounds bigger than any of her contemporaries – she is bigger than them, 6ft tall and striding the stage on six-inch heels like a punk Ophelia – and she looks like no one else out there.

‘I’ve always been interested in clothes. I became friends with my best friend at school because we wanted to dress up and go to burlesque nights and places where we could wear the most outrageous clothes ever.’ By outrageous, she means the outer limits of most people’s glam-fantasy dressing-up box. At 11, she says, she was dressing up as a witch in purple lipstick, the first of many phases. Little Old Lady was ‘brogues and cardigans and ankle socks’; Little Lord Fauntleroy was ‘boys’ shorts and blouses’, and somewhere in between came a preppy period (‘white socks and loafers; every day. I had a ponytail and I stood really still.’). She first dyed her hair bright red when she was nine, and since then it’s meandered through the entire annoy-your-parents spectrum, only returning to her trademark auburn 18 months ago. She describes her look now as – deep breath – ‘half gothic bat crow winged fantasy, half golden 70s Stevie Nicks white witch.

And a smattering of disco go-go hotpants.’ It takes some figure to get away with that kind of mix ’n’ match wardrobe, yet she hasn’t always been the lissom six-footer she is now. ‘I was a really chubby kid! Really awkward until the age of 16, then I just got tall, levelled out. I was even skinnier than I am now when I was 17.’ Florence says that although she does worry about her weight – ‘I think every girl does. No one’s completely happy with their body’ – her concern is less about getting fat than getting too skinny. ‘I have a tendency to lose weight – everyone in my family has it, my dad’s really skinny. We get too distracted and forget about eating. People are always encouraging me to eat more.’ Today she’s in a vintage black dress with a sort of built-in white-trimmed cape, and a battered pair of beige suede brogues. But she’s happy to defer to a stylist for her stage look, shoots and videos because, she says, ‘I don’t know what is going to look good on camera. But we work together really closely.

Aldene [her stylist] introduces me to new designers like Hannah Marshall and Felder Felder, who are really amazing. So it’s a mix of young, upcoming designers. That’s exciting – you’re making something; they’re making something.’ Most recently she performed for the Prince’s Rainforests Project alongside Paul Weller at the Eden Project, and in spite of all that has happened to her in the past 12 months – Glastonbury, a top ten album, the Brit Award and now that coveted Mercury nomination – she says that event stands out. ‘Prince Charles came on the screen above the stage and said thank you to the artists who played. I think he said my name. I was like, “Oh my God, thank you sir!”’ She laughs. ‘Him having said my name? Now that’s really weird.’ Florence’s new single ‘Drumming Song’ will be released by Island Records on 14 September; her album Lungs is out now. For more information on Florence, visit florenceandthemachine.net FLORENCE FAVOURITES RECORD: Manners by Passion Pit.

‘I was on stage straight after them at Glastonbury this year and I was singing along.' JEWELLERY: Anything by Dominic Jones. ‘He’s an old friend and he’s now doing so well and I wear his jewellery everywhere. I love his claw ring.’ SAVING UP FOR: A Chanel necklace. ‘One with the logo done with pearls. It’s actually the cheaper scale of Chanel. I told myself if I got a record in the top five I could have it. Now I have, so I need to go out and get it!’ BEAUTY PRODUCT: Kiehl’s Gentle Foaming Facial Cleanser. ‘I’ve got quite thin skin so I need something gentle.’ STYLE ICON: A mix of Stevie Nicks, Siouxsie Sioux and Annie Hall. 1000+ images about florence + the machine on Pinterest | Florence the machines, Maximalism and What kind of Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas florence + the machine English indie rock band Florence + The Machine are releasing their new album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, on 06/02/15.

55 Pins664 Followers Cheap Florence And The Machine New York Tickets R City Tickets Details of Florence And The Machine New York Tickets and the Ticket Luck value Florence and The Machine is an English band, known for playing a combination of genres including rock and soul. Being recognized for their unique sound of music, the band was acknowledged by BBC and remained a part of BBC Introducing for quite some time. The widespread media fame and the admiration of the audience have made the band reach Grammy Awards Nominations and recently win a Master Card British Album Award as well. With Florence Welsh at the vocals and accompanied by the collaborating artists providing backing music for her voice, the sound of Florence and the Machine is incomparable to other bands playing to the same genre of music. Defined as ‘the most peculiar and most highly acclaimed female singer of the moment" and "the latest in a line of great English pop eccentrics’ by The Time Magazine, Florence is surely at par as compared to the other artists of her time. In a period of three years, the band has released up to three studio albums, with ‘Lungs’ being the latest release.

Her singles such as ‘Cosmic Love’ and ‘Heavy in your Arms’ are not only appreciated by the masses but also happen to be featured in famous television series like ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘The Vampire Diaries’. The band known for its astounding live performances, is all set to deliver another one this year. Its concerts share a history of having approximately 28,000 – 33,000 people. People of New York, Florence And The Machine New York Tickets are already on sale. Buy them as soon as possible! Florence And The Machine New York NY was rated 5 out of 10 based on 2 rating(s) Q:Can you send me a copy of my florence and the machine nyc tickets through an e-mail? A:Yes, please provide us with your e-mail id and we will send you a copy of your Florence And The Machine New York Ny Tickets directly to your inbox. Q:How many florence and the machine new york tickets are still available in the inventory? A:There are still plenty of Florence And The Machine New York Ny Tickets available on on our website. Order today!

View All Florence And The Machine New York Tickets Newsletter Signup Get up to 5% immediate discount PLUS free news and updates for all your hot shows and games! Enter valid email Florence And The Machine cheap tickets - EvenTicketSale Cheap Concert Tickets Florence And The Machine Florence And The Machine Tickets Florence Welsh is the lead singer and personality of indie band, Florence and the Machine, formed in South London, UK in 2007.Known for her fairly-like ethereal live performances and propensity to make each young lady in the audience mount somebody's shoulders for "Rabbit Hole [Raise It Up]," Welsh alongside whatever is left of Florence and the Machine are compared to other UK artists, for example, Adele, Amy Winehouse and Ellie Goulding. Buy Florence And The Machine Concert Ticket Florence And The Machine Florence and the Machine is the artist pseudonym of British singer-songwriter Florence Welch (born August 28, 1986 in London; civil Florence Mary Leontine Welch). Biography He grew up in Camberwell, south London visited the local Welch Camberwell College of Arts, where they but their training in Art Foundation dropped out to pursue her music career.

She became famous in particular by their performances at the BBC Introducing on the Texas festival South by Southwest on March 13, 2008 as well as the opening act for MGMT. It was followed by appearances at music festivals in Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds. Their debut album Lungs released on July 6, 2009 in Germany. Each four of the thirteen tracks on the album were produced by James Ford or Paul Epworth. Welch is managed by Mairead Nash of the Queens of Noize. On 18 February 2009 she was awarded the second “Critics Choice” Brit Award (the first was 2008, the singer Adele) awarded, which is awarded only artists who have yet to publish a debut album. In January and February 2009, she also alongside Friendly Fires, Glasvegas and White Lies is represented in the line-up of the NME Awards tour of the British music magazine New Music Express.

Although the name Annex and the Machine in Welch’s stage name implies that the name refers to Welch and her band, Florence and the Machine, however, according to the official biography on their website can on everything from Welch alone with their instruments to Welch with her seven-member live band relate. Music Their music can be described as indie / skirt, with similarities to both Lily Allen and Kate Nash and to Bat for Lashes. In an earlier press biography Welch described her music as “music that would Lily [Allen] and Kate [Nash] make if they were included raised in a cage full of snakes in the basement of a funeral home in Louisiana” ( “She makes the kind of music Lily or Kate would make If They’d grown up locked in a cage full of snakes in the basement of a Louisiana funeral home “). Her lyrics are often sarcastic and ironic. Mid 2009. Welch joined mostly on a seven-member backing band, but some performances she also denies alone or with a drummer and a guitarist. At one of their songs and lyrics of Blur bassist Alex James is involved. With Kid Harpoon she covered the Springsteen hit I’m going down.

Your previously most successful song is a cover of the 1991 “You got the love” by The Source and Candi Staton, took up the Florence and the Machine musically very close to the original. Kiss with a Fist found in a TV ad clip from Vodafone use. On 6 July 2009, their debut album Lungs appeared. Find more Tickets Florence + the Machine — Free listening, videos, concerts, stats and photos at Last.fm Florence + the Machine (a stylisation of Florence and The Machine ), is a London, UK, art pop band led by singer-songwriter Florence Welch and formed in 2007. The band consists of: Florence Welch (vocals), Robert Ackroyd (guitar), Isabella Summers (aka Isa Machine - keyboards), Tom Monger (harp), Mark Saunders (bass, percussion), Christopher Lloyd Hayden (drums, backing vocals), Rusty Bradshaw (keyboard, backing vocals) and Sam White (backing vocals).

Lead singer, Florence Welch , was an art-college drop-out, from Camberwell (London), who was discovered singing… read more Florence Welch: 'I was awkward, intense and ridiculously self-conscious' | Daily Mail Online comments She may now exude confidence as a pop siren, but Florence Welch remembers her adolescence as ‘terrifying’. Here she tells Jane Gordon why she feels such sympathy for teenagers who have to cope with cancer during this intense period of their lives, and why she’s supporting the Teenage Cancer Trust ‘If you asked me to go back to being 14 or 15, I couldn’t – it was a terrifying time,' says pop siren Florence Florence Welch is talking about the agonies of being a teenager in a voice that is unexpectedly soft and hesitant. The 24-year-old, who as Florence and the Machine has achieved the kind of international success that has led to performances at this year’s Grammys and Oscars, is as different from her flamboyant on-stage persona as it’s possible to get.

Shy and polite, she is explaining why she chose to become involved in designing the packaging for a special charity edition of Kiehl’s Creme de Corps moisturiser, which will raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust. ‘If you asked me to go back to being 14 or 15, I couldn’t – it was a terrifying time. I was so awkward in my own skin. I used to hide behind my hair because I was so ridiculously self-conscious. It’s impossible to imagine how it would be to go through that period in your life – when everything is changing and you have these intense emotions – and also have to deal with something as terrible as cancer. The Teenage Cancer Trust does incredible work supporting and caring for teenagers and young adults with cancer, and it’s a cause that is really close to me and my family,’ she says, careful not to reveal too much about her personal links to the charity (it is, she says later, too sensitive for her to talk about). These days Florence can look back on her own teenage years with a combination of relief and amusement.

The eldest of three – she has a 21-year-old sister, Grace, and an 18-year-old brother, JJ – born to a distinguished American art historian and a dynamic ad-man, she enjoyed a privileged early childhood in South London. Tall, ethereally pale and gawky, she was, she says with a grin, drawn to the dark and the dramatic from an early age. ‘I dyed my hair red when I was ten and when I was 11 – in my goth period – I dyed it black and I was really into witchcraft. I made mini shrines in my bedroom with candles and tried to cast spells to make the boy in the next class fall in love with me. I don’t think he did,’ she says, laughing at the memory. When Florence was 13, her parents broke up and her mother Evelyn moved in with the man next door and his children (she has a younger stepsister too, from her father Nick’s second marriage). Life in this slightly bohemian dysfunctional family was difficult at first, but Florence believes that ultimately it has been enormously beneficial. ‘I don’t think my life has changed.

What has changed are the situations I find myself in – like performing at the Oscars’ ‘My siblings and I were friends with the boys who would become our stepbrothers – we grew up on the same street. I feel very special to have these amazing people in my life and if we hadn’t all moved into this big house together I think I would have missed out on that, because we would have drifted apart. At first it was hellish – it was like a human experiment – but I have these brilliant people in my life and I think it has taught us all how to get on with others,’ she says. It also fuelled her teenage angst and played its part in making her the extraordinary artist she is today. By the age of 14 she was writing songs with twisted lyrics (the first was entitled ‘My Boy Builds Coffins’), creating art installations in her bedroom and evolving her unusual sense of style (which she once said was ‘Lady of Shalott meets Ophelia mixed with scary gothic bat-lady’). Music and art became twin ambitions but, while she was studying at London’s Camberwell College of Arts, music won out.

After being signed by her manager, Queens of Noize DJ Mairead Nash (whom Florence pursued into the lavatories at a nightclub, where she sang her an Etta James song), she decided to take a year out from studying to focus on her music. Her meteoric success – with first album Lungs making her a star on both sides of the Atlantic – has turned that one year into three (she is currently working on her second album). ‘At first my mother’s attitude to my music was, “Well, do this for a while and then you can go back to university,” but now she is coming round to the idea that it’s not just a stage I am going through. Mind you, I’m not saying I won’t go back to university – I would love to finish my degree in illustration at some point,’ she says. Florence is backing a great cause: Every day six young people in the UK are told they have cancer Designing and illustrating (she is always drawing and doodling) remain passions but, although she enjoyed creating the special-edition packaging for Kiehl’s, she isn’t planning on any shift in her career just yet. ‘It was fun to work on the design,’ she says.

‘I wanted to create something bold that wasn’t too fussy and fitted the Kiehl’s aesthetic, which I love. I simplified the first logo I designed for Florence and the Machine when I was at Camberwell – I think it looks great.’ From the age of 18 – when she emerged from her awkward teenage stage and suddenly acquired friends (including her first boyfriend) and a sense of her own identity – much of Florence’s artistic creativity has been channelled into her on-stage costumes. ‘I have grown up creating my own dresses from vintage store and charity shop finds, and what I wear on stage is so much a part of who I am.’ Florence has the long, lean figure of a catwalk model (although she insists that having seen the models ‘I assure you I haven’t’) and is fast emerging as a fashion icon. Today she is wearing an eco faux-fur jacket she bought in Los Angeles with brown suede shorts that she has matched with thick tights and black suede boots. ‘I think I look like a 70s schoolteacher when I am off stage. I like long, floaty skirts and dresses,’ she says, laughing (she laughs a lot).

Florence’s choice of a nude Valentino lace dress on the red carpet at the Oscars was criticised by the American press for looking like ‘old kitchen curtains’, but the Roksanda Ilincic gown she wore for her performance was much admired. How has someone who spent so many of her teenage years feeling cripplingly self-conscious managed to adapt to red-carpet scrutiny – never mind actually performing in front of A-list stars and a worldwide TV audience at the ceremony? ‘It was pretty scary but A R Rahman, who I was performing with, was such a calming influence. He totally nursed me through it, and because of the lights I couldn’t see anyone while I was performing, so it was OK. In many ways it was just like any other gig,’ she says. It was, though, a long way from the little pub venues she played in at the beginning of her career, and Florence credits her family for keeping her so grounded. Although she has been with her boyfriend Stuart Hammond for several years – a temporary split inspired the lovelorn songs on her album Lungs – she still lives at home.

‘I like having dinner with my mum and little brother, and mooching around and going for walks, and I don’t really think my life has changed. What has changed are the situations I find myself in – like performing at the Oscars – and how little time I have for myself. I don’t feel any different and I am sure that my family would be the first to tell me if I started changing,’ she says, playing with a lock of her bright red hair (having gone from black to blue to green in her teenage years, she’s now sticking to red because ‘it suits me best’). Florence performing at the Oscars in February Florence describes her father Nick – who now manages an alternative ‘real’ camping site near Tunbridge Wells – as both her most fanatical supporter and her harshest critic. When Florence got her first tour – supporting American band MGMT in 2008 – she didn’t have any money and her father drove from venue to venue in a camper van. ‘We would pull up alongside MGMT’s massive tour bus in our van with all the pots and pans hanging out of the window shouting, “Coo-ee! We’re here!” They must have thought we were completely insane.

But it was really fun – one of the best times in my life,’ she says with a note of nostalgia. These days she is more likely to travel by private jet than camper van, and be accompanied by her new best friend Blake Lively. ‘Blake is just so nice. She came to my very first New York gig and has been a huge support in the States. Her mum and brother have come to the shows and then I had a slot on an episode of Gossip Girl,’ she says. But despite her celeb friends and fans (she counts High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens and Nicole Richie among her supporters), Florence is resisting some of the pitfalls of celebrity – she is on Twitter but rarely manages to Tweet. ‘I can only manage about one a month,’ she says. ‘It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that when I am in a situation where I am doing something amazing it’s a shame – and rather rude – to bring out my phone and start Tweeting. I think a lot of people miss out on enjoying the moment because they are so busy trying to communicate it to the world.

And I want to keep some moments to myself.’ Florence’s need to keep things to herself is such that she ‘really can’t say anything’ about her relationship with Stuart (apart from the fact that they are still together and ‘really good’). Besides, she says with a determined expression, she doesn’t really want to talk about herself – she is here to promote the philanthropic work of Kiehl’s. ‘Cancer for anyone is completely devastating, but to be a teenager when your whole life is changing is particularly terrible. I met an amazing girl, Georgia Ormrod – a 13-year-old living with a brain tumour – through the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Georgia was a fan of my music, and since becoming her “wish” I have kept in touch with her. Through Georgia and through events that have happened to my family and my friends I feel especially connected to the charity and want to help as much as I can.’ Florence has designed a limited-edition Creme de Corps body lotion of which 100 per cent of net profits from sales will be donated to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

It is available from Selfridges (selfridges.com) and kiehls.co.uk Every day in the UK, six young people are told that they have cancer. They then often receive hospital treatment in inappropriate facilities designed to cater for children or the elderly. Teenage Cancer Trust focuses on the needs of teenagers and young adults with cancer by providing specialist teenage units in NHS hospitals, designed to give young people the very best chance of a positive outcome. As well as state-of-the-art facilities to keep patients occupied during long stays, the units provide an environment where teenagers can meet others in a similar situation. Teenage Cancer Trust has already built 17 units, and plans to build a further 16 so that all young people needing hospital treatment for cancer across the UK have access to dedicated, specialist support. For more information on how you can support the Teenage Cancer Trust, please call 020 7612 0370 or visit teenagecancertrust.org.

Question: How are Florence Welsh and her backing artists known collectively?
Answer: 'FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE'